Email needs to be organized; otherwise that list in Mail can be a mess! David Passell explains his system. "Here is a 'trick' that works for me in sorting out all the various messages and messages within messages. If you have 'Organize by thread' turned on, just select all messages in the thread, do a copy, then paste into a new message. You don't even have to send it to anybody; then you can read/print and digest it. It will be in the 'drafts' mailbox. This may help in tracking the train of discussion.

"It would help to have a consistent 'protocol' for sending/replying to messages.

(1) Some repeat all that has gone before, others extract things to answer, some don't repeat any of the previous message (like me).

(2) In the Cc: for both originals and replies -- some repeat the list of all addressees, some may use "undisclosed recipients" (not sure who may be a party to the replies), some only reply to the originator of the message. Nobody but the President or Secretary should send a message to all members of PMUG.

(3) If an individual receives a message that should be of interest to the board the message should be repeated, or it can be forwarded. If the message is already addressed to the board probably it does not have to be repeated.

(4) Since replies to a message always have as a subject Re: I always add to this in parenthesis (main point of reply). That way there aren't multiple messages with the same subject each of which has to be examined."